1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a USB sharing switch device, and in particular, it relates to a USB sharing switch device which has automatic switching capabilities.
2. Description of the Related Art
A sharing switch device is a device that connects multiple computers to one or more peripheral devices such as printers, scanners, storage devices, etc., which allows the computers to share the peripheral devices. The sharing switch device selectively connects one of the computers to a peripheral device. A USB sharing switch device uses the USB (Universal Serial Bus) protocol for communication between the computers and the peripheral devices. In a conventional USB sharing switch device, switching is done manually by either pressing a button on the sharing switch device or sending a command from the computer to the sharing switch device. The USB sharing switch device is connected to both the computers and the peripheral device by USB cables, and data in the USB format is transferred through the sharing switch device without changing their format.
Another type of devices for sharing a printer by multiple computers is a printer server. Typically, the computers are connected to the printer server via a network such as Ethernet, and the printer server is connected to the printer by a cable such as a USB cable. The printer server processes packet data received from the computers over the network and transform it into USB data for the printer.